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Chapter 3 Fertility

Article 13 Fertility of couples of childbearing age must be subject to local population planning. One couple can have only one child except for those who meet special conditions of this regulation.

Article 14 Couples who meet any one of the following conditions, subject to application and approval, can have a second birth:

1. The only child has non-genetic defects;

2. The wife becomes pregnant after having adopted a child legally;

3. Both parties are only child in their family and have only one child;

4. Couples who have only one child, with either party being a veteran soldier with second-class, second-degree disability and above or equivalent of other non-genetic defects;

5. Couples who have only one child, with both parties being members of ethnic groups with a total population of less than 10 million;

6. Couples who have only one child, with both parties being returned overseas Chinese or residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan permanently living in this province;

7. Remarried couples with one party having one child from previous marriage and the other having none, or one party having no child but the other being widowed with less than two children;

8. Miners who have worked in the well for over five years and still do the same job, and have only one female child;

9. Rural residents living in plain or hilly areas, with only one female child;

10. People engaged in ocean fishing, with only one child;

11. Rural residents living in mountainous or reservoir areas, with only one child;

12. Rural couples with the husband married to a woman whose family has no son and with only one child;

13. Other circumstances as specified by the provincial government.

Couples who meet the conditions in Article 14 are also encouraged to have only one child and a third birth is strictly prohibited.

Article 15 Women who meet the conditions in Article 14 and apply to have a second birth shall reach the age of 28 and have a spacing of over four years; those aged over 30 are allowed to have a shorter spacing.

Article 16 Couples who have obtained special approval for a second birth shall pay to the family planning authorities at county/city/prefecture level a second-birth fertility fee. The rate will be set by the provincial government.

Article 17 Couples who want to have a first birth shall get approval from the family planning authorities at township/town level or urban neighborhood committee. Those who apply for a second birth shall get approval from the family planning authorities at county/city/prefecture level. Public servants and employees with their first child having serious non-genetic defects shall get approval from the family planning authorities at city/prefecture level. If approved, the family planning authorities at the woman's place of residence shall issue them a birth permit. Employers of the couples shall sign a family planning contract with them.

Article 18 Couples who abandon, kill, trade, or hide their child or send for adoption shall not be allowed to have more. Couples who have obtained approval for a second birth but terminated pregnancy without justifiable excuses will have their birth permit nullified and shall not be granted another permit.

Article 19 Citizens in urban areas and well-developed rural areas shall have premarital and prenatal health examinations and receive instructions on healthy birth. Couples having problems that may cause serious genetic diseases to the child are forbidden to give birth.